As to his lower % than Carney If all Mort had to do was kick 35 yarders his % would be much higher as well. Mora leaned on Mort to score and win games from just about anywhere on the field at anytime like Brees today

So yes Chad...he was that good. numbers cannot tell the whole story sometimes.

As to his lower % than Carney If all Mort had to do was kick 35 yarders his % would be much higher as well. Mora leaned on Mort to score and win games from just about anywhere on the field at anytime like Brees today

So yes Chad...he was that good. numbers cannot tell the whole story sometimes.

quote:so he's getting crediting for bailing us out with 35-40 yd field goals?

As a Saint 55.7% of his FGs were 39 yards or less and he hit 91% of those.

30.6% were from 40-49 and he only hit 68% of those, while another 13.6% were 50+ and he hit that at 41.5%

Compare this to Adam Vinatieri, Gary Anderson, and Garret Hartley

39 and under Percent of kicks | Accuracy

MA 55.7% | 91.2% AV 63.6% | 89.9% GA 60.5% | 89.9% GH 70.4% | 86%

Anderson was more accurate from "short range" but he was asked to kick long range much more often.

I think it really came down to his superior leg allowing coaches to lean on him more. I looked up Sebastian Janikowski's stats because he's known for his big leg and his stats and distribution are actually pretty similar to Anderson's LINK

This was our strategy in the eighties. Let Bobby get us past the 50 yard line and in fg range. Let Morten kick a fg. Play defense. Get the ball back on offense. Rinse and repeat. This was the Mora strategy in a nutshell. And for a span of 4-5 yrs it worked really well. But if you were a fan of offense you probably would slit your wrist at that time.

Those stats are skewed because every time the saints crossed the 50 you knew it was Morten Anderson time!. Im pretty sure he has tried a lot more field goals and not just that but was asked to attempt a lot more longer field goals. To answer your question yes he was that good.

re: Was Morten Andersen really that good?(Posted by Suntiger on 8/5/13 at 3:26 pm to Chad504boy)

quote:yeah trying to understand how kicking % has evolved over last 20 years. still a ball, a kicker, a field goal.

Not sure if your premise is correct, but I'd guess with more wide open offenses, there are more opportunities to get inside the 30 yard line to kick field goals.

I'd also imagine that players have perfected their techniques more. Soccor style was relitively new at that point. Now they have kicking academies, etc. Probably better kicking shoes and better footballs as well.

Not sure if Astroturf has anything to do with it. Are there more Domes now than the 80s/90s?

re: Was Morten Andersen really that good?(Posted by plawmac on 8/5/13 at 3:28 pm to MISSIPSAINT)

Andersen was a hell of a kicker. But, the greatest of all was Jan Stenerud, who played for the Chiefs in the 60s-70s. When he first came in the league (old AFL), missed FGS where placed where the ball landed (or returned). KC had a bad punter and Stenerud was routinely called on to kick FGs that had zero chance of being good, because he would outdistance the punter.

re: Was Morten Andersen really that good?(Posted by NOSHAU on 8/5/13 at 4:22 pm to Suntiger)

quote:Not sure if your premise is correct, but I'd guess with more wide open offenses, there are more opportunities to get inside the 30 yard line to kick field goals. I'd also imagine that players have perfected their techniques more. Soccor style was relitively new at that point. Now they have kicking academies, etc. Probably better kicking shoes and better footballs as well. Not sure if Astroturf has anything to do with it. Are there more Domes now than the 80s/90s?

About 20 years ago, the NFL also instituted the rule whereby a missed field goal was placed at the spot of the kick (not the line of scrimmage). This discouraged some of the longer, high risk, field goals because of the disparity in field position on misses. Notice Andersen's FG% increased in the late 90s. Could be a correlation as some of the longer FGs (many missed) were now turning into punts.